Sara Cox facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sara Cox
Cox at Manchester Fashion Week, October 2007
Born	Sara Joanne Cox (1974-12-13) 13 December 1974 (age 50) Bolton, Greater Manchester, England
Other names	Sara Cox
Occupation	Television presenter, radio presenter, author
Years active	1996–present
Spouse(s)	Jon Carter ​ ​ (m. 2001; div. 2005)​ Ben Cyzer ​ (m. 2013)​
Children	3

Sara Cox (born 13 December 1974) is a well-known English radio and television presenter, and also an author. She is a popular voice on BBC Radio 2, where she has hosted the teatime show since 2019. Before that, she was famous for presenting BBC Radio 1's breakfast show from 2000 to 2003.

Sara Cox has also presented many TV shows for the BBC. These include The Great Pottery Throw Down (from 2015 to 2017), Too Much TV (in 2016), and Back in Time for... (from 2018 to 2020).

Early Life and First Jobs

Sara Cox was born on 13 December 1974. She grew up on her father's farm in a village called Little Lever, near Bolton, England. She was the youngest of five children. When she was about six or seven, her parents separated, and she moved with her mother and a sister to another house in the same village.

Sara went to Smithills High School and then Canon Slade School. After finishing her A-levels, she decided to become a model. She appeared in a music video for the band Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark in 1993. She also featured on a poster for the video game Wipeout in 1995.

In 1996, Sara got her first TV job. She presented The Girlie Show on Channel 4, which was a popular show at the time. Later, she worked on other shows like Exclusive on Channel 5 and Born Sloppy on Channel 4. In 1997, she hosted MTV Hot, a late-night music show for MTV in the UK. In 1998, she even had a small role in a film called The Bitterest Pill.

In September 1998, Sara Cox became a presenter on The Big Breakfast. She interviewed many famous people like Robbie Williams, Sting, and Leonardo DiCaprio. She often did her interviews in her father's caravan, which was in The Big Breakfast garden.

Time at BBC Radio 1

Starting Out (1999–2002)

Sara Cox joined BBC Radio 1 on 19 September 1999. She started a very popular show called The Surgery with Mark Hamilton, where she was known as "Nurse Coxy." She also co-hosted a Saturday lunchtime show with Emma B.

In December 1999, it was announced that Sara would take over the Radio 1 Breakfast show. Her first breakfast show was on 3 April 2000. At first, her show was very successful, and the number of listeners grew a lot. It reached 7.8 million listeners, which was the biggest breakfast audience Radio 1 had ever had! However, by August 2002, the number of listeners started to go down.

Changes and New Shows (2003–2008)

In January 2003, Sara signed a new contract with the BBC. However, in October 2003, the BBC announced that Chris Moyles would take over her breakfast show. Sara Cox hosted her last breakfast show on 19 December 2003.

After that, Sara moved to the afternoon "drivetime" slot, which is a show for people driving home from work. She hosted this show for six months. In June 2004, Sara went on maternity leave to have her first child, a baby girl named Lola Anne. When she returned to Radio 1 in early 2005, the drivetime slot was given permanently to Scott Mills.

From February 2005, Sara presented the afternoon show on Saturdays and Sundays.

Later Years at Radio 1 (2008–2014)

On 17 February 2008, Sara Cox presented her last show for six months as she went on maternity leave for her second child. She returned in September 2008. She then covered for other presenters and later hosted a Sunday mid-morning show.

In March 2010, Sara went on maternity leave for the third time. She returned to the station in August 2010 to cover for Fearne Cotton and even filled in for Chris Moyles on the breakfast show for a couple of days.

In August 2012, it was announced that Sara Cox and other presenters would cover Fearne Cotton's show on BBC Radio 1 while Cotton was on maternity leave. Sara Cox's final show for Radio 1 was on 17 February 2014.

Moving to BBC Radio 2

In June 2011, Sara Cox started hosting a comedy show called Hot Gossip on BBC Radio 2. Over the next few years, she often filled in for other presenters on Radio 2, including for The Radio 2 Breakfast Show when Chris Evans was away.

Sara joined BBC Radio 2 for her own regular show on Saturday nights from October 2013. It was called Sounds of the 80s and played music from the 1980s. This show moved to Friday nights in April 2016.

From May to December 2018, Sara also hosted a new late-night show on Radio 2 from Monday to Thursday. On 29 October 2018, it was announced that Sara Cox would take over the drivetime show from Simon Mayo starting on 14 January 2019.

In July 2022, it was announced that her drivetime show would become an hour longer, running from 4 PM to 7 PM.

Television Shows

Sara Cox has presented many different TV shows.

• In July 2007, she presented London Live on Channel 4.
• She appeared as a guest on the Sky1 show Angela and Friends in 2009 and 2010.
• In 2010, she was a team captain on What Do Kids Know? on the Watch channel.
• Sara also helped commentate for the semi-finals of the Eurovision Song Contest on BBC Three in 2011, 2012, and 2021.
• On 21 October 2014, she guest presented a special Children in Need episode of The Great British Sewing Bee.
• In April 2015, she started presenting The Great Pottery Throw Down for BBC Two, a show where people compete in pottery.
• In 2016, Sara co-presented Too Much TV, a daily magazine show on BBC Two.
• In 2017, she appeared on Dara O Briain's Go 8 Bit and co-presented the One Love Manchester benefit concert.
• Since 2018, Sara Cox has co-presented Back in Time for..., a show where a modern family experiences meals from different historical periods.
• From May 2018, she also presented Love in the Countryside for BBC Two.
• In March 2019, she started hosting a new ITV show called The Sara Cox Show, which featured entertainment, live music, and celebrity guests.
• In October 2020, Sara launched and presented Between the Covers on BBC Two, a book programme that has continued for several series.

Books Written

Sara Cox has also written books!

• In March 2019, her book Till the Cows Come Home: A Lancashire Childhood was published. It's a memoir about her childhood growing up in Lancashire in the 1980s.
• Her first novel, Thrown, was published in May 2022.
• Her second novel, Way Back, was published in March 2024.

Personal Life

Family

Sara Cox married DJ Jon Carter in October 2001. Their daughter was born in June 2004. They later divorced in December 2005.

On 16 September 2007, Sara announced she was expecting her second child. Her son was born on 10 March 2008. She went on maternity leave for a third time in March 2010, and her second daughter was born on 12 March.

On 23 June 2013, Sara Cox announced that she had married her long-term boyfriend, Ben Cyzer.

Protecting the Environment

Sara Cox cares about protecting the environment. In 2009, she joined the 10:10 project, which aimed to help people reduce their carbon footprint. She said that because she grew up on a farm, she was used to wearing extra layers of clothes instead of turning up the heating.

Helping Charities

Sara Cox is involved with many charities:

• She helped create a children's story called Once Upon a Time to promote a charity phone number. The book was auctioned to raise money for the NSPCC.
• She supports the animal charity PDSA and has been photographed with her pet dog, Snoop, to promote them.
• In July 2011, Sara and other celebrities took part in a women's horse race called The Magnolia Cup to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital.
• She has been an ambassador for Centrepoint, a charity for homeless young people in the UK, since 2000. She takes part in their "Sleep Out" event every year, where she sleeps outside in London with other fundraisers.
• In 2006, Sara participated in Only Fools on Horses, a celebrity showjumping event for Sport Relief.
• From 20 to 21 March 2017, Sara Cox did a 24-hour danceathon on BBC Radio 2 to raise money for Comic Relief's Red Nose Day. She raised over £800,000!

Awards and Recognitions

In November 2006, Sara Cox was given an honorary doctorate by the University of Bolton. This was to recognize her important contributions to broadcasting.

Filmography